eBay’s U.S. sales climb 15% in Q3

The value of merchandise sold on eBay Inc.’s U.S. marketplace, excluding vehicles, increased nearly 15% year over year in the third quarter to $7.4 billion, the online marketplace said today. The growth came in part from gains in mobile commerce and what eBay calls “investment in buyer experience.”

The value of merchandise sold on eBay outside the United States in the third quarter, excluding vehicles, increased 12% to $11 billion, for a total global merchandise sales value of around $18 billion, up 13% from a year earlier. Fixed-price sales increased 18% globally year over year and represented 71% of the total value of goods sold on eBay.

"We delivered strong third quarter results, with mobile driving a significant portion of our new user growth and continuing to transform how consumers shop and pay around the world,” says John Donahoe, president and CEO. "Our scale and experience, the strength of our global commerce platforms, our technology assets and our mobile commerce capabilities strongly position us to be a leader in the commerce revolution under way.”

However, eBay executives also said that they saw a slowing of growth in U.S. online sales in the last two months of the thrid quarter, with no improvement in the first half of October. Chief financial officer Bob Swan said that U.S. e-commerce growth, which was 15.5% year over year in the second quarter according to comScore, was likely closer to 13% in the third quarter. "U.S. e-commerce has softened considerably, and we have a cautious outlook for the holiday season," Swan told analysts on a conference call to discuss the third quarter earnings report.

For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, eBay reported:

The value of merchandise sold worldwide on eBay, excluding vehicles, was $18.36 billion up about 13% from $16.28 billion a year earlier. About 60% of marketplace sales, or just more than $11 billion, came from outside the United States.

Net revenue for eBay marketplaces this quarter was $2.02 billion, up 12% from Q2 2012.

Active registered users, that is, the number of people that bid on, bought, listed or sold an item on an eBay marketplace in the past year, totaled 13.6 million, up 14% from the same period a year earlier and 14% from the second quarter of 2013.

Active users of eBay’s payment services, which include consumers with PayPal or Bill Me Later accounts, totaled 137.4 million, up 17% from the same period a year earlier and 4% from the second quarter of 2013. Bill Me Later offers shoppers deferred billing.

PayPal’s revenue increased 19% year over year to $1.6 billion. PayPal gained 5 million active accounts during the quarter and has 137 million now.

PayPal's net total payment volume grew 25% to $44 billion, driven by “consumer and merchant use of PayPal both on and off eBay.”

Net revenue from the former GSI Commerce Inc., now named eBay Enterprise, totaled $238 million for the second quarter, up about 5% from $226 million a year earlier.

EBay’s net revenue increased 14.4% to $3.89 billion in the third quarter compared with $3.40 billion in the same period last year. Net income totaled $689 million on a GAAP basis, up 15.4% from $597 million a year earlier.

EBay also reported receiving $485 million for its sale of its 30% stakes in flash-sale e-retailer Rue La La and free shipping program ShopRunner and repayment of a related loan from Kynetic Inc., which owned the remaining 70% of those companies. EBay made the $467 million loan to Kynetic in 2011 when it acquired GSI Commerce from Kynetic principal owner Michael Rubin, then sold some of its assets back to Rubin. The sale of eBay’s stakes was announced last week as ShopRunner announced raising more than $200 million in capital in a funding round led by Chinese marketplace operator Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, eBay reported:

• Net revenue increased 14.3% to $11.51 billion compared from $10.07 billion for the same period last year. Net income totaled $2.00 billion on a GAAP basis, up from $1.85 billion.